Top-of-mind for healthcare consumers last week: Nine groups of specialty physicians have identified 45 tests and treatments that they believe are the most overused in medicine, according to a report in MedPage. The biggest culprit? Imaging studies, which are over-ordered in all but one of those specialties.

What will attendees hear about at TEDMED this week? The pressing shortage of primary care doctors and nursing shortage will be articulated as one of the most pressing challenges in healthcare hiring. Add to that the critical importance of healthcare leaders, who also are in short supply.

“There are very few [physician] positions that are going to be open that you can’t predict,” a recruiter told Healthcare Finance News. Therefore healthcare recruiters can create opportunity by helping their clients get up to speed with healthcare workforce planning.

Social and mobile media are gaining traction with pharmacists, nurses and doctors hunting for jobs, according to a survey by recruiter AMN Healthcare reported in Healthcare IT News. Physicians on Facebook? Like it or lose the business.

So much of the future of healthcare IT depends upon the continued existence of the Affordable Care Act, an industry insider told Information Week. Health Information Exchanges and IT workforce development are at stake; recruiting for HITECH is less vulnerable.

Dentists aren’t in Kansas anymore -- or at least not in the “dentist deserts” of the state’s rural counties. So the Kansas Dental Project is proposing a new level of clinician: the Registered Dental Practitioner, with more skills than a hygienist but fewer than a dentist, according to Kaiser Health News. The idea leaves a bad taste in the mouths of DDSs and DMDs, but might create a new market for healthcare recruiters.